Traffic Issues Still Not Addressed

November 12, 2014
Yesterday, I sent the following email to Chairman Nelson, and cc’d William Gustus , Joe Yurkus , Phil Crawford , Tom Terranova, David Breen , Andrew Lafferty, Paul Stedman, and Joe DeMaina as these were items I had hoped could help the Town better understand the traffic situation.

The chairman has not responded, but Bill Gustus did and his response states that the town will be redoing the traffic study and will hopefully address the questions I proposed. Really would have been nice to have had the meeting and allowed everyone to participate. Not sure what the next steps are but we will try and keep everyone informed.

Letter to Dave Nelson

(see Town Administrator response below)

Dave,

Sorry that you decided to cancel the traffic hearing but I will let people know.

Since you cancelled the meeting and Bill has about six weeks left I believe you will be the point person on issues until the new Town Administrator comes on board.

I am disappointed that the hearing is cancelled. I had hoped that the following items could be answered or discussed.

Currently at 57.5% of the sq footage of MarketStreet is open
In the VHB traffic study it was stated that the traffic intersection would go from an F Level Of Service (LOS) to a C LOS. Is that the current level?
How is a LSO C defined? I could not find it in the VHB reports. If this is level C then perhaps we have to live with this.
Will current level C be maintainable when next phase open?
Will current level C be maintained when last 109,000 sq ft be open
What are the primary issues that need to be addressed to get it to a level C and is it a town of state responsibility
A few months ago the town allowed additional signage on I-95 , on the ramps, and on the Market Street public way for the purposes of reducing people not knowing where Market Street is and for public safety. How is impact of new signage being measured?
I believe that if what comprises LOS C, it would help if this is what the entire Town has to live with.

Thank you,
Wally

Response from the Town Administrator

Hi Wally,

These are all good questions and I will try to get some answers for you. I met with a new Engineering Group (Beta Engineering) just yesterday to discuss a complete review of the original plans and studies done in connection with the development of the design and light configurations. From there they will document the reality of the situation and compare it with those assumptions. They will either validate or refute them and they will then prepare a plan of action for improving things.

I should have a proposed scope of work tomorrow and will share it with the group for comments and suggestions when it is available. I will also have them review your questions and ask them to provide answers as part of this scope of work.

We have also asked them to review the entire Walnut Street corridor from Saugus to Summer Street and come up with viable proposals to improve things. They will also be reviewing the origins of traffic converging on the area and match that up against the design assumptions on volume and origin of traffic flow.

In short, we really do want to know what is going on here and will continue to seek solutions.

Thanks,

Bill

Wally

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Board of Selectmen meeting of November 13, 2014 is canceled
November 12, 2014
​It’s official, the traffic hearing is cancelled. Why they mailed hundreds of invites and then Chairman Nelson cancelled is ​baffling.

The Board of Selectmen meeting that was to be held on Thursday, November 13, 2014 at Lynnfield High School auditorium has been canceled.